Oh, the embarrassment. The government commissioned its own Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to investigate whether graduate visas (which grant overseas students the right to stay in Britain for two years after graduation) are being exploited and should be abolished. This was seemingly in the hope of gaining some ammunition to do away with a measure which it only introduced three years ago. Trouble is, the MAC has now come back and said that the visas are not being abused and should remain.
Rather than reform the Human Rights Act to stop outrages, the government clamps down on the soft targets
The government now has a choice. It can go ahead and abolish the visas anyway, possibly adding that the MAC is made up of a bunch of pinkos and vested interests, given that its members are all academics. Or it can accept the findings and embrace graduate visas, and stop worrying that they are adding to net migration. The first option would be doubly ridiculous – not only are graduate visas one of the government’s own policies, it appointed the MAC in the first place. As for the second option, it is hard to see what the problem is. Indeed, graduate visas are one of this government’s better ideas.
When we left the EU wasn’t the whole idea that we would regain control of migration policy? The Leave campaign never said it wanted to stop all migration, only ensure that those who come here are contributing to the economy and are not being a burden on taxpayers. On that basis, we should be welcoming overseas students with open arms – including offering them the chance to work here after graduation. They are one of Britain’s most successful export industries of recent years. And yes, they really are an export – while they might physically be entering the country they are paying for a service provided by British-based universities. As well as earning the country money they are also helping to subsidise courses for UK students.
Moreover, it costs £822 to obtain a graduate visa, plus a health surcharge of £1,035 – so those who obtain them are contributing to the NHS on top of any tax they are paying while they are here. Nor are students placing an especially heavy burden on the housing stock – many are living in small student rooms which would not be considered suitable for housing benefit claimants. True there has been a large surge in applications since 2021 – with 144,000 granted in 2023, twice that in 2022. The government is quite right to restrict the number of dependents allowed to enter the country on graduate visas – 30,000 of those granted last year were to dependents rather than graduates themselves.
But the government is lashing out at students because of its impotence in dealing with the sort of migration which really is a burden on the country and which the electorate desperately wants stopped: illegal migration, much of it in the form of people abusing the asylum system. If anyone deserves to be clamped down upon it is the Albanian armed robber who lied about his nationality in order to win asylum in the UK – but who earlier this year was allowed to stay in Britain after a court ruled that it would breach his right to a family life to deport him.
Rather than reform the Human Rights Act to stop outrages such as this, the government clamps down on the soft targets, the migrants who are adding to the UK economy. It is pathetic. Brexit gave us the power to take control of our migration system – the government should use that power in a proper way.
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